Youth choir "Kamēr..."

Youth Choir Kamēr...
Choir
Kamēr... in December of 2015
Also known as	Kamēr...
Origin	Riga, Latvia
Founded	1990 (27 years ago)
Founder	Māris Sirmais
Genre	Classical
Choirmaster	Aivis Greters
Chief conductor	Jānis Liepiņš
Manager	Madara Ambrēna
Headquarters	Riga State Gymnasium No.1, Riga, Latvia
Website	kamer.lv

Youth Choir Kamēr... is a Latvian mixed youth choir based in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 1990 by Māris Sirmais. A winner of multiple national and international prizes and awards, including the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in 2004 and 2013, the choir performs in various events on both the Latvian and international stage, and collaborates with renowned musicians and orchestras.

Since 2012, the artistic director and chief conductor of the choir is Jānis Liepiņš. Until then, its artistic director since 1990 was its founder Māris Sirmais.

The choir's managing director is Madara Ambrēna, and project manager - Edgars Skarbulis. Corporate relations manager is Andris Vecrumba.

The choir has two vocal coaches: Ansis Sauka un Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa. Ansis Sauka works mostly with the male voices, and Jolanta Strikaite-Lapiņa with the female voices. Jolanta became a vocal coach in 2016, after the retirement of Aina Bajāre, who had been working with the choir since its founding in 1990.

The second conductor conductor of "Kamēr..." since 2012 is Aivis Greters. Former second conductors are Jānis Liepiņš, Ainārs Rubiķis, Mārtiņš Ozoliņš and Inita Kamarūte.

Since its inception in 1990, "Kamēr..." has won numerous multiple national and international choir competitions, prizes and awards:

Kamēr... has also been awarded the Latvian Grand music award twice:

In recent years, Kamēr… has developed programs specially commissioned for the choir. Its biggest project to date is World Sun Songs (2008), which featured 17 new choral works inspired by the sun; the project included such world-renowned composers as Sir John Tavener, Giya Kancheli, Sven-David Sandström, Leonid Desyatnikov, John Luther Adams, Stephen Leek, Dobrinka Tabakova, Ko Matsushita, and others. Other examples of this concept have included the cycles Madrigals of Love (2010), Moon Songs (2012), and Amber Songs (2014), in which several celebrated composers wrote choral miniatures on love, the moon, or arrangements of Latvian folk songs, respectively.